“Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), one of the leading hardliners on the right in the debt ceiling fight, is predicting Speaker Boehner (R-OH) will not be able to pass his new plan for a two-tier deficit reduction package without help from Democrats.”

“‘I'm getting mixed e-mails now form the House on whether they have the votes. I don't think they're going to have 218 Republicans,’ he said.”

“Democratic leaders have said they will urge members to vote against Boehner's proposal and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) believes few, if any, Democrats will jump ship. On the House side, influential conservative Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) said earlier today that he doesn't believe Boehner can pass his current plan with only Republican votes.”

“Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and his party’s whip, said that his side of the aisle has no plans to support the debt reduction proposal issued by House Speaker John A. Boehner. The bill will receive ‘very few’, if any, votes from Democrats when it comes up for a vote as early as Wednesday, Mr. Hoyer said. Insisting that Republicans want to ‘hold the country hostage’ with a short-term deficit strategy, he grudgingly pointed to the plan proposed by his Senate colleague, Harry Reid, majority leader and Democrat of Nevada, as the only plausible alternative to appease both chambers in a very divided Congress.”

“Mr. Hoyer argued that both parties had previously agreed that a debt ceiling increase should involve a long-term fix for the federal deficit. However, he said, the current G.O.P. proposal would extend the nation’s borrowing authority for a brief period and force Congress to revisit the issue in another nine months.”

“He said that Mr. Reid’s plan would stabilize the economy and give confidence to the financial markets while appeasing at least some of the demands from both parties. ‘I think the Reid plan is the way out. It accomplishes everything they ask for,’ Mr. Hoyer said, which includes $1.2 trillion in spending cuts and no new revenue from tax increases. ‘But they can’t take ‘yes’ for an answer.”’

“Without any Democratic support, Boehner can only afford to lose 22 votes for his plan to pass the House. And House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said ‘very few’ Democratic representatives would back the Boehner plan, scheduled for a vote Wednesday.”

“On the Democratic side, Boehner was not getting any good news, either.”

“On Tuesday, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer said he would vote against the Boehner plan. The Maryland Democrat, who reached out to Boehner to work together on a debt solution earlier this year, blasted Congressional Republicans for a ‘politicized hostage-taking’ of the economy and predicted that ‘very few’ of his Democratic colleagues would support the GOP debt limit proposal.”

“‘I don’t want to give a number on it, but very few,’ Hoyer told reporters when asked how many Democrats might vote in favor.”

“But Democrats have bashed the Ohio Republican’s proposal, which could come to the House floor on Wednesday, mainly because of the two-step process in increasing the debt limit. The initial debt ceiling hike – between $900 billion and $1 trillion – is estimated to take the country until sometime in the winter.”

“Hoyer said he would vote against it and imagined that House Democrats – except a ‘very few’ – would do so as well.”

“‘It will continue to roil the markets and will not be effective in bringing stability and confidence that Republicans said was essential,’ Hoyer said.”

There isn’t a lot of time to waste. When will House Republicans abandon their ideological agenda and work with us to pass a long-term, balanced proposal that will ensure we pay America’s bills, reduce the deficit and bring certainty to our economy?